Ledger balance-sheet



No. 6|9,366| Patented Feb. I4, |899. H. SWALLEY.

LEDGEB BALANCE SHEET.v

(Application led July 12, 1897.)'

{Ho Model.)

lulu l In!! UNiTnb STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY SWALLEY, OF MILVAUKEE, WISCONSIN.

LEDG ER BALANCE-SHEET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 619,366, dated February 14, 1899.

Application flled July l2, 1897. Serial No. 644,275. (No model.)

T0 all whom, t may concern.-

Beit known that I, HENRY SWALLEY, a citi- Zen of the United States, and a resident of Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of l/Visconsilnhave in vented certain new and useful Improvements in Ledger Balance- Sheets; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and eXact description thereof.

My invention relates to balance-sheets used particularly in connection with bank-ledgers; and it consists in certain peculiarities of construction and combination of parts, as Willbe fully set forth hereinafter and subsequently claimed.

In the drawings, Figure l is a plan View of the device embodying` my present invention partially broken away to better illustrate certain details of construction. Fig. 2isalongitudinal sectional View on the line 2 2 of Fig. l. Figs. 3 and -1 are detail sectional views taken, respectively, on the lines 3 Sand @lof Fig. l drawn to an enlarged scale.

Referring to the drawings, A represents a casing or pocket adapted to be either permanently or temporarily bound into a ledger, (according as the latter is to be a permanent or loose-leaf ledger,) there being a series of these casings or pockets distributed at intervals through the book, with any suitable or desired number of regular ledger-leaves between said casings or pockets. B is a transverse strip forming a back-stop for the inner or rear edge of the movable balance-sheet C. This pocket A is preferably formed of paper or cardboard, which may have suitable indexrulings on the exterior, as shown, and which may be lined on the inner surfaces with suitable thin textile fabric, if desired.

D D are small pieces of wood or any other suitable material forming the front and sprin g stops of my device and are secured just within the open front end of the said pocket A, at the top and bottom of the same, as shown.

E E are strips of elastic webbing or other suitable material secured to the rear part of the balance-sheet C and to the rear or inner end of the pocket A, back of the back-stop B, as shown at a a, and to guard against undue thickness the balance-sheet C and back-stop B are preferably recessed, as shown at b o, so

that the said elastic strips E E may be flush with their upper surfaces, this construction greatly facilitating the movement of the sheet C in and out of the pocket A. The sheet C is made of several layers of paper or cardboard, the central layer being cut out, as shown at d d,on its upper and lower edges to afford room for the movement of the springs F F. These springs are preferably formed of pieces of spring-wire, doubled and bent, as shown, and with their ends e f secured in said middle layer of the sheet C, the outermost part of each spring having a central offset or shoulder g for engagement with the outer or front edge of the adjacent stop D, so as to hold the strip Cin the extended position, the said sheet C being itself formed with offsets or shoulders 7L h for engagement with the inner or rear edges of said stops D D to limit the outward movement of the said sheet, and the spaces d clperrnitting the outermost parts of each spring F to be pushed inward, thereby freeing the spring-shoulders g from engagement with the strips D, when the elastic strips E will instantly draw back the sheet C within the pocket A. The upper layer of the sheet C is preferably provided with a silicious or similar coating, so as to form a readily-e'ra'sable surface, and is further provided with horizontal lines and vertical column-rulings, these columns showing when the sheet C has been pulled out from the pocket and being respeel tively headed to indicate the nature of the entries on the said horizontal lines, the said columns (illustrated in the present drawings) being respectively marked Overdraft, Balance, Account No., and Name. Inasm uch as the entries in the rst two columns are subject to daily change these entries are to be made with a lead-pencil, and to guard against the premature or accidental erasure or blurring of the said lead-pencil entries, which would be liable to occur from the frequent draWing-out and return of the sheet C and consequent rubbing of the upper surface of said sheet against the inner surface of the upper part of the pocket A, the said upper layer of the said sheet C is embossed or otherwise provided with raised vertical divisionlines t' t' t' between the several described columns, whereby this liability to erasure is obviated, as the said inner surface of the pocket A is thus prevented from contact with the adjacent surface of the sheet C bearing the lead-pencil entries.

Each sheet C is provided with its appropriate index-tag j, marked with the proper index-letter, and when the sheet C has been retracted within the pocket A by the action of the elastic strips E this index-tag alone projects beyond the edge of the pocket, and preferably these tags are made integral with the sheets or, if not, they are very firmly secured thereto, so as to serve as the means of pulling the said sheets out of their pockets when it is desired to make changes or examine the entries on the sheets. s

The most convenient method of using my device is to have vthe accounts alphabetically arranged by name, one letter to a sheet, and therefore as the balances (or overdrafts) are corrected at the close of business each dayin the appropriate columns the standing of any account can be instantly determined by pulling out the sheet C having the proper indexletter, and if any change is to be made the sprin gs F F will hold the said sheet rigid until this is done,thereby saving a great deal of time otherwise consumed in turning over the leaves of the ledger until -the account in question is found. The number of elastic strips E E employed is immaterial;y but with the use of two, placed, as shown, adjacent to the upper and lower edges of the sheet C, the said sheets will move in and out evenly no matter at what point the tag j is located by which the sheets are drawn out, and hence the said tags are preferably arranged in a different horizontal line on each succeeding sheet C, so that the f said tags will all be exposed to view in regular order in the complete ledger. By reason of the described retraction of the balance-sheets within the pockets the'ledger is made of the ordinary length, the said pockets coming iiush with the regular ledger-leaves, and hence my device is more compact and convenient than it would be if the balance-sheets containing the lead pencil entries were permanently exposed to view, besides which said entries are less liable to accidental erasure or blurring than would be possible if the sheets were permanently exposed and are never in the way when entries are to be made on the reguany suitable or desired number of regular ledger-leaves interposed between said casings or pockets, the latter being flush at their front edges with the regular ledger-leaves, and a series of movable balance-sheets adapted to be partially withdrawn from or restored to place withinsaid casings or pockets, and stops for preventing the complete separation of said casings or pockets and said balancesheets.

2. The combination in a ledger, of a'series of casings or pockets bound in or secured thereto at intervals throughout the book `with their front edges flush with those of the regular ledger-leaves, a series of properly-ruled balance-sheets,series of horizontally-arran ged elastic strips connecting the inner edges of said balance-sheets to the inner rear parts of said casings or pockets and index-tags projecting from said balance -sheets, whereby each balance-sheet may be withdrawn by means of its tag from its casing or pocket and be automatically retracted within the same by the action of said elastic strips.

3. The combination with a casing or pocket adapted to be bound into a ledger, of a transverse back-stop within said pocket,front stops secured within the open front end of said pocket at top and bottom, a movable balancesheet havingshouldered edges for engagement with the rear edges of said front stops, springstops on said sheet for engagement with the front edges of saidw front stops, and elastic strips connecting the rear part of said balance-sheet with the rear part of said pocket within the latter, substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereuntoV set my hand, at Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of Wiscousin, in the presence of two witnesses.

HENRY SWALLEY.

Witnesses:

H.`G. UNDERwooD, B. C. RoLoFF. 

